The power of the Ankaragucu fan base struck again this week after the club secured Sponsorship from Global Tyre manufacturing company Petlas. After their sponsorship of Goztepe many fans took to social media asking why the Turkish giants hadn’t invested in Ankaragucu. Low and behold 3 days later the club have secured sponsorship which is more good news for the club.
Ankaragucu manager İsmail Kartal gave an interesting interview today with Spornova and it really gave the fans an insight to all the hard work going on behind the scenes. I have been one of his biggest critics, mostly due to the feedback from Fenerbahce and Gaziantepspor fans, and also the poor start he had with his Ankaragucu career. I think it’s time to cut him some slack and get behind him, after today’s interview I have a new found respect for Ismail and think the fans should get behind him.
İsmail spoke about all the data that is collected to monitor the teams movement in every game, the data will calculate distance covered by each player, sprints and other useful information. He has studied the methods of Barcelona, Man United and Borussia Dortmund and is trying to implement some of that at Ankaragucu. He wants the team to dominate possession and be the top team when it comes to the amount of distance covered in each game. Altinordu are the youngest team in the League and are the benchmark who currently cover most ground.
Boluspor are this weekends visitors to Ankara and will be another tough game as they have asaspirations for challenging for a playoff place. Despite a 2-1 home defeat against Altinordu in their last match, Boluspor have had some impressive results of late with a 3-1 win over Adana Demirspor and 2-0 at Erzerumspor. Gokhan Alhas who had a successful loan spell at Ankaragucu 2 years ago and was a fan favourite will get a warm reception from the home crowd.
Rydell Poepon will be the key player for Boluspor with the Dutchman scoring 20 goals last season and has started well again this season with 3 goals in 7 games. Boluspor record signing Mahmut Taskiran has yet to start a game this season after the club shelled out over 1 million on the 27 year old Goalkeeper from Fenerbahce.
Ankaragucu are on a run of 3 wins in a row and will be looking to continue their good form on Sunday afternoon. Lanre Kehinde is set for a start after his 2 goals at Gaziantepspor took him from zero to hero. If Kehinde can keep his temperament in tact he will be a key player for the club as he is almost unplayable when he gets going.
The main area of concern is the defence and İsmail Kartal will be working on improving that’s in training. Nduka Ozokwu has been rulled out for the rest of the first half of the season with injury and the club have applied for permission from the TFA to register a replacement in the squad.
Sundays match kicks off at 1pm Turkish time and if anyone wants to join the Kankas in the stadium please get in touch with Jim.
Interesting report from Nadeem, and one which will cheer the fans who doubted Ismail Bey's appointment. I'm sure the team will be well prepared after a 2 weeks break and be straining at the leash to get going.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Nadeem concerning Kahinde's position in the team. As I said in my last report, I'm expecting him to be in the starting line-up and he is sure to receive lots of ammunition from the likes of Pursila and Ilhan from the attacking midfield areas.
With the early KO, we are meeting in the Kara Simit Cafe on Selanik Sokak. Just before the Yeni Sedir at the bridge, take a right and the cafe is about 300 metres on the right.
Looking forward to making an upbeat report on Monday to report Ankaragucu's entry into the play-off positions !!!